Why your taxes are so high, No. 459

Do you get bonuses just for staying in your job? Many public employees do. The Jersey Journal reported Jersey City taxpayers last year paid out $15,089,184 in longevity pay to employees of the city, the school district and five of the city’s seven autonomous agencies. Some workers received bonuses equaling 19 percent of their base salaries while the city was claiming a years-long pay freeze. The paper reported, “The city’s two public-safety chiefs, Police Chief Tom Comey and Fire Chief Darren Rivers, each raked in $25,134 from longevity pay last year, boosting their pay by 16 percent. The two men each grossed $182,219 last year. And property owners probably can’t figure out why their taxes are so high.

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About Bob Ingle

Bob Ingle is Senior Political Columnist for Gannett New Jersey newspapers and co-author of The New York Times' Best Seller, "The Soprano State: New Jersey's Culture of Corruption" and "Chris Christie: The Inside Story Of His Rise To Power". He has won numerous journalism awards and is often a news analyst on radio and television. Twitter @ bobingle99.

“Never give a sucker an even break” This has allways been the attitude of Jersey City government towards it’s tax base . “This city is ours ” is a common refrain by public employees from The Casino in the Park to the Park Tavern . Even though many don’t live in JC anymore , the powers that be will reelect Healy over Fulop to keep the gravy train going.

Taxpayers need protection against these govt looters—-what’s happening here
is exactly what brought Greece to its knees. Incidences of public employees “cashing in” on the job, off the job, at retirement, when sick, when on vacation, in good health and bad, etc etc etc—–indicate a massive conspiracy against taxpayers. Using public monies, govt authority and govt funds to collude and conspire to build a lucrative self-serving empire—-demands the implementation of RICO laws.

These published accounts are only the tip of the iceberg—to distract us from the massive crimes being committed. God only knows the financial bombs these trough-swillers planted in govt budgets that jetstream tax dollars to them through infinity.

The media should begin digging—-report monies “public servants” paid to (a) brokers, sub-brokers, (b) family members, (c) mortgage brokers, (d) financial managers, and, (e) real estate agents, brokers, and developers, and the like.
Taxpayers could then sue local govt, commissioners and local govt agencies, and banks holding public monies found to be covering up govt fraud.

REFERENCE Under the Bank Secrecy Act passed by Congress, banks are required to establish, implement and maintain programs designed to detect and report suspicious activity indicative of money laundering, govt fraud and other financial crimes. “The Bank Secrecy Act was enacted to protect the tax-paying public from harm by identifying and detecting money laundering from criminal enterprises, govt fraud, tax evasion, and other unlawful activities,” explained the special agent in charge for Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations.

We are being hollowed out from within by the greed and criminality of insiders with unlimited access to govt money. Public servants serving themselves
can and should be stopped.

Just the beginning or should I say the continuance of the gravy train. Several more articles today about incompetents leaving in retirement and taking their boat money with them. Outrageous bankrupting of not only municipalities but collectively the state.

The sap-happy Bd Of Commssioners approved a $700,000 retirement pkg for the town’s municipal clerk. Jerseyans are struggling and some do not even have jobs—this one had THREE govt jobs and sucked up a total of $167,548.00 per year after 22 years employment.

AND GET THIS, the $700K clams is over and above her lifetime $100,000.00 per year state pension PLUS lifetime Cadillac family benefits.

The airheaded profligate Commissioners defended their actions—made in closed session—without taxpayers’ knowledge or consent. The dumbos never even bothered to check state laws—-b/c it seems the deal may be illegal WRT employment time required for a public employee to get lifetime family benefits (25 years).

Now the town’s hired an attorney to (1) investigate the severance package, and, (2) whether laws were violated in approving the pkg.

All of the documents filed—-her employment contracts, her salaries at all these govt jobs, her perks—all need to be checked out for possible falsification. It is a felony to falsify official documents– forgery, tax evasion and money laundering should also be considered.

NOTE there have been known cases of conspiracy and collusion—govt employee salaries being underreported—to dupe the taxpayers—then a larger amount submitted for payout to the Dept of the Treasury.

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Bob Ingle, Senior Political Columnist for Gannett New Jersey newspapers, on politics in "The Soprano State".

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Bob IngleBob Ingle is Senior Political Columnist for Gannett New Jersey Newspapers and co-author of The New York Times' Best Seller, "The Soprano State: New Jersey's Culture of Corruption." Hear him Fridays at 5 p.m. on www.tommygshow.com radio. twitter.com/bobingle99 E-mail Bob

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"Chris Christie: The Inside Story of His Rise to Power," written by Bob Ingle and Michael Symons, offers the first inside portrait of New Jersey’s governor, who in two years as governor emerged as a national Republican Party figure famous for his blunt public statements. The book details Christie’s combative public persona and deep family roots, tracing his improbable political rise from a bruising stint in county government to his anti-corruption crusade as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. Chris Christie: The Inside Story of His Rise to Power goes behind the scenes to reveal his family life, his public life, and what the future might hold..

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"The Soprano State," written by Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure, details the you-couldn't-make-this-up true story of the corruption that has pervaded New Jersey politics, government, and business for the past thirty years. From Jimmy Hoffa purportedly being buried somewhere beneath the end zone in Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands, through allegations of a thoroughly corrupt medical and dental university, through Mafia influence at all levels, to a governor who suddenly declares himself a “gay American” and resigns, the Garden State might indeed be better named after the HBO mobsters.

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